UNDER the Mental Health Act, someone deemed to have a mental disorder may be admitted to hospital, detained and treated without their consent, either for their own health and safety, or for the protection of others.

People can be taken in under various sections of the Act, depending on the circumstances and that is why the term “sectioned” is used to describe a compulsory admission.

One of these is section 136, which allows a constable to remove an apparently mentally disordered person from a public place to a place of safety for up to 72 hours.

The Act goes on to say a place of safety could be a police station or hospital. So why do almost a third of people in North Yorkshire who are detained under s136 end up in a prison cell?

It’s not as if this is the only option. York and Scarborough have new place of safety units specifically designed to ensure detainees receive specialist care, which is why we agree with Mark Winstanley of Rethink Mental Illness that custody should only ever happen as an absolute last resort.

Locking up people cannot be right in this day and age, unless it is for their own or the public’s protection, and it’s difficult to believe so many people really fit this category.

We hope all officers have been made aware of the places of safety and that they should always be used in preference to a cell, except in exceptional circumstances.

Police Commissioner Julia Mulligan tells us that while progress has been made, more work needs to be done.

Indeed it does.